Vulnerable tenants targeted by drug gang 'cuckoos'

Criminal gangs are targeting isolated individuals living in housing association and council accommodation by befriending them then taking over their homes to deal drugs, say charities working with vulnerable people. The rewards for "cuckooing" are manifold, according to experts. The gangs are able to operate from an unobtrusive flat out of sight of the police and use the premises to deal and manufacture drugs in a safe environment paid for by the taxpayer. Once the gangs are using the properties for criminal enterprises, their inhabitants are terrified of going to the police out of fear they will be suspected of involvement in drug-dealing, something that would cause their eviction. Robert, who has brain damage and lives in a hostel in Vauxhall, south London, was befriended by a woman when he was living on his own in a council flat. But then her boyfriend, "H", started coming round, using Robert's flat as his own to take and deal drugs. "He would beat me up, and she would sit there smiling," Robert said. "There are predatory people out there," said Tony Waters, the manager of the hostel, which is run by the homelessness charity Thames Reach. "If you're a granny living on your own you won't get cuckooed, because you will have a network of friends around to support you. But if you're vulnerable, say you're ex-homeless, you'll be clocked straight away. These gangs are very selective about who they target. They are quite entrepreneurial." The rise of cuckooing is largely a response to the widespread closure of crack dens under powers given to local authorities a decade ago. The clampdown coincided with a successful push to accommodate tens of thousands of homeless people in flats run by housing associations. The gangs targeting cuckooing victims often use drugs as bait. "The drugs angle helps to put pressure on people, the people they have befriended are worried about being associated with hard drugs, and because they are illegal they are then unlikely to complain to anybody," said Bill Tidnam, director of housing and community support at Thames Reach. Sometimes it is simply friendship that gets them through the door. "Often the victims are lonely, isolated and have nothing to do with their time," said Mike Nicholas from Thames Reach. "We had this one guy with us called Phillip," Waters recalled. "Ex-army, pretty tough guy. I thought, 'How the hell did you get cuckooed?' They offered him sex. Sent some women round and the blokes came in afterwards." Pete is another victim of cuckooing. He was placed in a flat by his local council after leaving rehab, where he was treated for alcoholism. The two men two flats down seemed friendly, one of them offering Pete, 48, a draw on his crack pipe. "I was naive, I suppose," Pete said. "I thought they were all right at first. I'd been in rehab, so I didn't know anyone. At least it was someone to talk to." The men would treat Pete's flat as their own, using it to smoke crack and deposit their mountain bikes. Then one of them started beating Pete. "He was twice my size and half my age. He told me to hand over all my money. I gave him £10 and he said, 'Is that all you got?' So I gave him my remaining 70p." The mental and physical torture continued with Pete in constant fear of the men entering his flat to take drugs at a time when he was desperately trying to stay off alcohol. One night, when the men were out, he decided to flee. "I left everything I had in that flat: TV, DVD player, mobile phone," he said. In some ways Pete was one of the luckier victims of cuckooing: he was able to get out quickly. But having lost his flat he is back in a hostel, drinking super- strength lager and struggling to turn his life around Ray (not his real name) was, in effect, a prisoner in his own flat until four months ago. In his late 50s, he is considered an elder in his Jamaican expat community in south London and friends of his nephews would visit his flat asking for advice. He enjoyed their company. The men gave him cigarettes and drink, painted his flat and lent him money to go to Jamaica. They introduced him to a 21-year-old woman he regarded as his girlfriend. Then he discovered the men were using his flat to deal crack. The gang told him they would harm his family if he called the police. One member hit him with an iron pipe when he confronted him about the drug dealing. Francesca Wright, a support officer with Southwark Reach, an organisation that works with vulnerable people in London, was asked to visit Ray's flat after a tip-off from the borough's Antisocial Behaviour Unit. After several visits, Ray confided he feared his life was in danger. Wright arranged for him to be moved into emergency accommodation. "This case is not unusual," she said. "In Southwark alone, we have three or four people who have been going through something similar. There is a growing trend for people to target vulnerable adults; it's becoming more common." Ray has never returned to his flat. Arrest warrants have been issued for six men in connection with drug-dealing from the property. His "girlfriend", it transpired, was a prostitute. But Ray said he is happy for the first time in more than four years. "I don't know where I would be without her," he said of Wright. "She was so good to me. She's more than me mum."